Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure, for example, relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to techniques for supporting a wider band mode for enhanced machine type communication (eMTC).
Description of Related Art
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system). A wireless multiple-access communication system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UEs). A base station may communicate with UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a base station to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to a base station).
Some types of UEs (e.g., narrowband UEs) may communicate with base stations or other UEs using narrowband communication. Narrowband communication may include, for example, narrowband LTE (NB-LTE) communication, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (of which Machine Type Communication (MTC) or enhanced MTC (eMTC) may be considered a part for purposes of this disclosure), NB-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication, and the like. A narrowband transmission channel (e.g., a narrowband control channel or a narrowband data channel) may be associated with a narrower bandwidth than a wideband transmission channel, and may enable a narrowband UE to communicate using a potentially simpler and lower cost modem than is needed for communication over a wideband transmission channel. A narrowband modem may also consume less power than a wideband modem.